When Margarita Bleier began school in the Dominican Republic in 1953, she was an outcast. As was common in the deeply religious society, she ended up in a Catholic school. The problem was she wasn't Catholic.

Bleier came from a Jewish family. Her parents had escaped Europe during World War II. They landed in the Dominican Republic, a country deeply rooted in Catholicism. So much so that for Bleier, finding acceptance without the faith of the vast majority of the country was extremely difficult.

“I didn't know how to cross myself,” she says. “I didn't know any of the traditions or prayers.”

As a result, children called her names and made fun of her.

Fifty years ago, religion — primarily Catholicism — was synonymous with Latin American culture. It had penetrated society in nearly every country to which the Spanish had once laid claim to the extent that those who did not share that faith, as in Bleier's case, were open to public ridicule.

But now, according to a 2007 Pew Research Hispanic Center study, a different story is emerging as more Latinos create homes and lives in the United States. Many are leaving the Catholic Church. Some convert to a different Christian affiliation, and others move toward secularism.

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But the battle for the collective Latino soul hinges on how younger generations relate to religion.

“The big difference is that U.S. religions were post-Reformation, meaning they existed in Europe before and were transplanted in the West,” says Catholic theologian Virgilio Elizondo. “In Latin America, a new religion was born, one that mixed with indigenous beliefs. That is why the Catholic Church is so strong in Latin America.”

Elizondo, who served 12 years at San Fernando Cathedral and now divides his time between San Antonio and The University of Notre Dame, explains religion is a more personal experience in Latin America, as opposed to the more institutional church of the United States.

According to the Pew study, 68 percent of Hispanics identify as Roman Catholics, followed by 15 percent identifying as born-again or evangelical Protestants. Of that 15 percent, almost half converted from Catholicism. Additionally, 8 percent of Latinos do not identify with any religion.

The results of a 2013 Gallup poll tell a similar story. Religious preference among U.S. Hispanics for Catholicism dropped from 58 percent to 54 percent between 2008 and 2012, while both evangelicals and the religiously unaffiliated grew.

According to the Pew study, many of those who left the Catholic Church cited a desire for more involvement, or a more personal experience, with God.

“What attracts people to churches outside of the Roman Catholic Church, where the priest will lead everything, other churches are easier to get involved in,” says Lutheran pastor Ely Prieto, who says his church, Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in San Antonio, often provides a comfortable transition for former Catholics because of similarities between the two faiths.

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By the numbers

Latinos and Catholicism

According to a 2013 Gallup Poll, 61 percent of Hispanics 65 years and older prefer Catholicism. That number falls to 60 percent for those 50 to 64 years old, 56 percent for those 30 to 49 years old and 47 percent for those 18 to 25 years old.

Twenty-seven percent of Hispanics ages 30 to 65 and older are Protestant, compared to 29 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds.

Latinos and religion

According to a 2007 Pew Research Hispanic Center study, 82 percent of Latinos give no indication of having changed their religion. Of the 18 percent that have, 70 percent are former Catholics.

The primary language for the majority of Hispanic converts is English.

The Latin American country with the highest number of religious converts to secularism is Puerto Rico at 31 percent, with 21 percent of those converts being former Catholics.
Mark D. Wilson

But both the Lutheran and Catholic churches are reaching out to youth.

Lutheran youth have been gathered in San Antonio since July 1 for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod National Youth Gathering. The gathering brings young Lutherans together every three years. Likewise, the Catholic Church's World Youth Day will be held mid-July in Brazil. “Our goal as a church is to bring Christ to people in ways that relate to their experiences and intellectual levels,” Prieto says. “We are looking for young, bilingual or trilingual people who have cross-cultural minds.”

Prieto says older generations are typically more conservative, while the next generation might be open to some new things.

“The younger generation is more inquisitive. There is more questioning today. That's the new generation. They want information,” he says. “We need to be more attentive to people's intellectual needs and not to pretend that we have all the answers. You have to be willing to listen and learn. If you don't, it won't work in this generation.”

According to Gallup, younger generations of Latinos are more likely to consider themselves less religious than their predecessors.

Even so, Rodriguez's ministry, already the largest Hispanic Baptist church in Texas, is growing. Between its two San Antonio locations, Life Church (formerly South San Filadelfia) sees about 700 attendees throughout multiple services, and will host the Baptist Family Gathering, which marks the first time all seven conventions of the Baptist General Convention of Texas will be brought together.

Many members of Rodriguez's congregation are from Latin America, others are children of immigrants or fourth and fifth generation American Latinos.

Rodriguez says Life Church has implemented several programs including edgier worship services, soccer leagues and music classes to reach out to younger Latinos, who he says also seek more involvement in the faith.

But he also has the challenge of balancing the traditional needs of older generations.

“We're finding out that there is a huge market out there for Latinos that prefer English, but there are also a lot who prefer Spanish,” says Rodriguez. “We'll have a family that comes to the Spanish service and the kids go to the English service. Different cultures come together.”

Though numbers show an evident shift away from Catholicism for many Latinos in the United States, Elizondo is confident that religion is far from endangered in Latino culture.

On July 16, as many as 2 million youth will arrive in Brazil for World Youth Day, a pilgrimage designed for young Catholics by Pope John Paul II in 1985.

“[Catholicism] took root very deeply in Mexican cultures,” Elizondo says. “In a way, the Catholic faith was grafted into the culture. My feeling is the religious traditions in Mexico, and that's what I know, even when eclipsed by secularism sometimes, they are still there.”